I am in the process of separating/condensing/reorganizing my websites. Instead of having one giant webpage, I am breaking things down into content areas and reposting them appropriately. This post comes from a quick stop I made back in 2010 to the town of Brownfield.

Brownfield was connected with both the oil industry and the agricultural industry, and is still alive today. (1) You can learn more about the town by visiting the town website.

When I passed through town on the way to a conference, I liked the way the grain silo contrasted the sun, so I stopped and took a few pictures. Upon wandering about for a few minutes, I found the switching engines.

Brownfield, TX grain silo. 8/1/10

Brownfield, TX grain silo. 8/1/10

The switching engines might be in use, but it was hard to say. None of them were moving, and all of them were in need of paint- but I did not see any obvious signs of disuse. The tracks were covered with a layer of surface rust, and had some low grass growing between the ties, but that could mean infrequent use rather than no use at all.

Switching engines in Brownfield, TX. 8/1/10

I zoomed in on the engines. The first one was HCLX 1006, which according to the RR Pictures Archive was pulling freight 1/31/10. (2) Visit the site for a complete description.

HLCX 1006 in Brownfield, TX. 8/1/10

The other engine was WTLC 107, which is the West Texas and Lubbock line, according to Trains Web. Interestingly enough, they have the same locomotive as I have pictured, also located in Brownfield about two years earlier. It likely stays near this town, but then again, there’s only 107 miles of WTLC track, so it doesn’t wander far. (3)

WTLC 107 in Brownfield, TX. 8/1/10

There were more pictures to take, but I was in a hurry to get to a conference in Austin, so this was all I could do in a few minutes after fueling up. Hopefully, I’ll visit again with more time to spend.

June 30, 2013, my family and I passed through Landergin, TX and stopped to take pictures of a semi-modern ghost town. This town was never very large, having a gas station, restaurant and grain silo as the only buildings on record.

(1) Google Maps View – Landergin, TX

(1) Google Maps View – Landergin, TX: You can see the shadow from the grain silo on the northwest quadrant of the interchange. The gas station and restaurant are on the northeast quadrant of the interchange.

According to the Texas State Historical Association (2), Landergin was established in 1906 by Pat H. and John Landergin. These brothers also formed nearby towns of Vega and Adrian, both of which are much larger than Landergin ever was.

It does not say when the grain elevator was put into place, but documents we found in the scale house showed grain receipts in 1978 through 1990, and the abandoned grain elevator still stands today. There may have been more receipts, but those were the ones that were strewn about the floor of the scale house.

Today, all that stands is a gas station, a restaurant, a grain silo, and a scale house for the grain silo, all of which are abandoned. The gas station and restaurant were closed and locked, but the front door of the scale house was wide open.

View from the restaurant parking lot. (c) 2013 Seth Price

From under the gas station awning. (c) 2013 Seth Price

View of the grain silo and scale house. The concrete directly in front is the truck scale. (c) 2013 Seth Price

View of the grain silo and the clouds. (c) 2013 Seth Price

We found a few pieces of information about the silo when we looked around:

The gas station was abandoned and the gas pumps mostly knocked over and destroyed. I checked all of them for an inspection sticker- that would have at least dated the gas station within one year of abandonment. All of them were either missing or faded beyond recognition.

Open gas pump, cover missing. (c) 2013 Seth Price

Abandoned gas pump. (c) 2013 Seth Price

The scale house was its own piece of work. Open to the birds, there were feathers and droppings everywhere in it. We even found a nearby bird nest:

Bird eggs in grain silo. (c) 2013 Seth Price

On the floor were several items that might help date when the scale house was abandoned. The latest inspection slip we found was 7-5-90, and we also found an old calculator. Whoever ran this scale house was also interested in aircraft, as there were several copies of amateur pilot magazines laying around, dating back to 1984.

The scale itself was an analog scale, with a dial gauge visible from both the outside and the inside of the scale house. This way, the driver and the operator could both read it. Once again, the calibration date was faded as well, but there was a “9x”, meaning it was last calibrated in the 1990s.

In the back of the scale house was a bathroom, complete with shower. It might have been a farmhouse that was converted to a scale house, or perhaps someone stayed there 24 hours a day. There was a kitchen and an office, as well as the main room with the scale. There were no beds, but several desks, couches and chairs. One of the more curious things we found was an Easter basket, and a Polariod photograph of a man carrying the Easter basket. Based on the condition of the building, we opted to bring home the photograph and try to find its rightful owner. It is likely someone’s grandfather carrying the Easter basket, and I think it would be neat if we could find the owner, and maybe get a few stories from them about the town.

Easter basket against the water heater. We found a photograph nearby. (c) 2013 Seth Price